Open to Hope Articles
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Three Grief Lessons from ‘Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close’
June 20, 2012
When I saw Stephen Daltry’s “Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close,” I cried three times. The first time, it was the mere idea of a boy losing his father who he loved so much at age 9. The second time, I temporarily morphed into the character and adopted his struggle to understand life’s cruel injustices like 9/11 and the fractured families left behind. The protagonist’s approachability embodied a question we all encounter, “What now?” The third time, the tears were happy. I was overcome by the collective selflessness on screen. The film, adapted from the best-selling book, which was nominated for […]
Complicated grief
May 30, 2012
Sometimes our parents linger for years in their older years. Their death is expected, it hovers in the future for months, even years. When they die there is a relief and then there’s a flood of guilt that results in grief that is complicated. But grief is always complicated, isn’t it? Is it ever simple?
Man Writes Music to Ease Grief
May 29, 2012
My name is Michael, and I lost my talented, loveable, indescribable sister to suicide, and my solid, strong, and loyal father to a cancerous brain tumor- in the space of half a year. I don’t have to tell you how that felt. Most of you reading this have your own pain to help you empathize with my story. What I do want to share here with you is how I deal with it; how my music helps me and allows me to try and help others, how it brings me comfort, how it gives me strength. For me, my more […]
Lost my Daddy only 42 yrs young
May 10, 2012
[color=#8000BF:xhpsr93p] I was only 12 years old when my Daddy died of a massive heart attack. That was April 16th 1989. He was never sick nothing No warning. The strange thing is we all spent alot of time together but I have hardly NO memories of him. Is this normal. Is there any way to remember lost memories?[/color:xhpsr93p]
Mother’s Day Without Mother
May 10, 2012
For most people, Mother’s Day brings to mind bouquets of sunny flowers in pink hues, often-obligatory brunches, and lingering in the aisles trying to find the perfect greeting card to sum up gratitude for a lifetime of love and care. Mother’s Day is traditionally a celebration honoring mothers, motherhood, maternal bonds and the influence of mothers in society. However for those of us who have suffered the loss of a mother, or a child, Mother’s Day can be a muddle of complex emotions. On the one hand we want to be mindful that it is a celebration, but it is […]
Crying Unexpectedly in the Middle of a Talk
April 29, 2012
I speak to national and local groups about loss, grief and recovery. Last week I spoke to a group of Elder Network volunteers in my community. It was a small group, a dozen people gathered around a central table. The hour-long talk was about anticipatory grief, something everyone goes through, and something many fail to recognize. My talk began with a summary of the nine years I spent caring for my mother, who suffered from progressive dementia. The stress of caregiving increased as my mother’s dementia progressed. “Each day, I wondered if this would be the day she died,” I explained. […]
one day at a time
April 25, 2012
Helpful ideas for the long haul. http://withsympathygifts.com/blog/grief … an-others/
Losing a parent
April 24, 2012
Nara Schoenberg writes a good piece on losing a parent. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca … 5133.story
Remembering Mom on the Occasion of her 90th Birthday
April 19, 2012
It is hard to believe that my mother would have turned 90 years old this month. I was thinking about my mom today and had so many great memories of her and here are a few of my favorite. 1. I remember when our family lived in Bethesda, Maryland in the early 60s, sometimes she would do a little tap dance in the kitchen on the linoleum floor, while making dinner and she was good. She just seemed happy like that. At 20 she had studied ballet in New York and was accepted into the “Rockettes” before she met my […]
